If exercise is healthy (so good for you!) why do many people dislike or avoid it? These
engaging stories and explanations will revolutionize the way you think about exercising—not to
mention sitting sleeping sprinting weight lifting playing fighting walking jogging and
even dancing. “Strikes a perfect balance of scholarship wit and enthusiasm.” —Bill Bryson
New York Times best-selling author of The Body • If we are born to walk and run why do most
of us take it easy whenever possible? • Does running ruin your knees? • Should we do weights
cardio or high-intensity training? • Is sitting really the new smoking? • Can you lose weight
by walking? • And how do we make sense of the conflicting anxiety-inducing information about
rest physical activity and exercise with which we are bombarded? In this myth-busting book
Daniel Lieberman professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a
pioneering researcher on the evolution of human physical activity tells the story of how we
never evolved to exercise—to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. Using his
own research and experiences throughout the world Lieberman recounts without jargon how and
why humans evolved to walk run dig and do other necessary and rewarding physical activities
while avoiding needless exertion. Exercised is entertaining and enlightening but also
constructive. As our increasingly sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates
of obesity and diseases such as diabetes Lieberman audaciously argues that to become more
active we need to do more than medicalize and commodify exercise. Drawing on insights from
evolutionary biology and anthropology Lieberman suggests how we can make exercise more
enjoyable rather than shaming and blaming people for avoiding it. He also tackles the question
of whether you can exercise too much even as he explains why exercise can reduce our
vulnerability to the diseases mostly likely to make us sick and kill us.
